Organic electronic devices (OEDs) are articles that include layers of organic materials, at least one of which can conduct an electric current. Illustrative examples of known OED constructions include organic transistors, photovoltaic devices, rectifiers, and organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). Heat, light, oxygen, and moisture adversely affect many of the inorganic materials, such as low work function electrodes, and the organic materials that are used in OEDs. It is important, therefore, to protect these materials from exposure to the open air. OED devices thus require hermetic packaging in order to achieve the long lifetimes required for many applications. For an OLED, this typically consists of attaching a glass or metal cap onto the cathode side of the device, as described in, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,874,804 and 5,686,360, respectively. As described in, e.g., JP 00123968, desiccants are often placed inside the hermetically sealed device to absorb moisture that may be generated by the cure of the adhesive or that may enter the device through adhesive bond line. Oxygen getterers may also be placed inside the sealed device to absorb any oxygen that may enter the device through the sealing adhesive, as described in, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,304,419 and 5,591,379; and JP 07-169567. Typical desiccants include fine powders of BaO or CaO. Typical oxygen getterers include finely divided metals such as magnesium and iron. Care must be taken to prevent these fine powders from contacting the OLED to avoid abrasion damage, electrical shorting, and the like. The desiccant and/or getterer is thus often placed in a dimple in the metal or glass sealing cap and held in place by a permeable membrane.
Desiccants have also been dispersed into organic polymers to give composite materials with some adsorbent properties. These loaded polymers have been coated on the inside of encapsulation caps or adhered to the inside of encapsulation caps as a means of preventing the desiccant from physically damaging the package it is designed to protect, as described in JP 00-150141 and WO 00/06663. These desiccant loaded adhesives have generally not been used to structurally bond two parts together.